1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a starter bar apparatus in a continuous casting assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As a conventional starter bar in a continuous casting assembly there is known a starter bar of a link structure in which inside and outside links are connected through a pin and a starter bar head is attached to one end portion, while a tail link is attached to an opposite end portion, as is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,457,353 and 4,478,271. In this link structure, oil is fed to the pin connection, but problems occur such as deformation of the pin and wear of a bushing and thus frequent repair is needed. Moreover, the operation stability is poor because the movement of the starter bar head is not constant during drawing-out of a cast strip due to the motion of the links. Further, because of the very heavy weight of the starter bar, replacement is difficult and the resultant cost is high.
On the other hand, where a starter bar is to be stowed using a storage table or an inclined table in a continuous casting assembly having the starter bar of a link structure, it is necessary that a cutter front table between a drawing roll unit and a cutter should have a length corresponding to the length of the starter bar. This causes a problem in performing high temperature casting.